4. We have arrived in USA

What a bonus we had when we arrived at the airport. They had upgraded us to Business class and so we had a most enjoyable flight over. The comfortable seats allowed us to stretch out and the delicious food prepared us for the feasting that would take place in America. It was so good to see my sister and the family and because of the Internet we were even able to speak to Vera and Bradley on line. We hope to be able to catch Evelyn the next time we visit with the family and have Internet access. We have had several trips to the many shops and tasted a variety of delicious ice creams. I have not managed to stay awake at night so have not watched TV because I have gone to bed early but once my body is used to this time zone I am sure I will get to see some of the programmes that I would like to see. We have arranged to visit with one of the local ministers who trained with Douglas so look forward to that. in general its just "talk, talk, talk" in order to catch up on many years of being apart.

3. Next stop New York

We have just gone on line and checked in for our flight tomorrow. We leave at 18h20 Netherlands's time on our way to New York. although we will be sad to say good bye to the family here we are very excited about seeing my sister, Viv and her family in America. It has been so long since we last saw Viv, Terri, Steve, Samantha, Amanda, Angela and Jenny and the added bonus will be that we get to see the Australia connection too as Sharon, Alan, Jamie and Jesslyn will be coming too because of Viv's big birthday celebration. You can just imagine all the chatting and catching up we will be doing. The flight is not too long and as we are used to late nights we plan to stay awake so that we will be ready for bed when we arrive and then can enjoy the next day having had a good night's sleep. We don't want to miss a minute of any day by sleeping during the day.

2. The first part of our trip is well on the way

Yesterday we left S.A. and arrived here in Holland this morning. We had a good flight but did find yesterday a very long day as we got up at 04h00 and left Durban at 08h30 so spent most of the day at Joberg airport. Our flight from there was at 23h30 but we had not wanted to have the possibility of our domestic flight being delayed so had taken the early morning flight instead of the late afternoon one. Douglas was thrilled that we found a place where he could have his oasts for breakfast so we had a good start to the day. I treated myself to prawns for a late lunch so that was another highlight. We had our supper on the plane at 01h00 this morning. Breakfast was at 08h00 and we arrived at Amsterdam at 10h00. I managed to get 6 hours of sleep so the trip seemed very short. We had a lovely afternoon at the animal farm and then enjoyed a good dinner and as we had contacted the family in S.A. on Skype we feel that we can now retire for a good nights sleep, the only problem is that it is still broad daylight even though its past 21h00. Our room has a good system of blinds so we should manage to bluff ourselves that it is dark.